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NYPD Solved 57% Of Murders Last Year


By

Garth Johnston

Published Feb 15, 2013

Modified Feb 15, 2013


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By

Garth Johnston

Published Feb 15, 2013

Modified Feb 15, 2013


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What are your chances of getting away with murder in New York City? About 43 percent, according to the NYPD. And your chances only improve if you use a car as your weapon of choice!

Though the NYPD has been quite happy to harp on its record low murder rate in 2012 (just 419 murders reported) they've been less eager to talk about how many of those murders they actually solve. But with the Department about to drop a bunch of data to the FBI they've acknowledged they don't always get their man. As the Wall Street Journal's Sean Gardiner reports:

The NYPD now says that it cleared 74.8% of the city's homicides in 2012, meaning that police made an arrest, or that the suspect couldn't be extradited, or was dead.

The clearance rate includes any unsolved cases from the past that were resolved in 2012, which is standard for crime statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

When the cold cases aren't included, the NYPD solved 57% of the year's 419 homicides, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD.

The average national clearance rate for police departments aren't available for 2012 yet, but for your reference? The average in 2011 was 64.8 percent. Unfortunately, the NYPD's clearance rate is slightly down from past years—in 2009 the number of unsolved murders was closer to 40 percent.

Tagged

clearance rate

HOMICIDE

murder

nypd

police


Garth Johnston

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